Part XVI: The Heirs
(Gaul, 2 BCE – 15 CE)
No one knows what he can do until he tries. – Publius Syrus
In all of history, the death of a hegemonic and undisputed leader is always a problem for the successor. He leaves behind boots too big to fill, and a bar set high, too high sometime to reach. Edorix, now aged 48, recognized new High King by the Conglennos, knew he had to detach himself from the shadow of a father already elevated to legend status. For the people of Gaul to stay under one rule – Arverni rule – he must leave no place to dissent. He started the first year of his reign with a heavy-handed repression of a Remi revolt in 1 BCE, decimating the local elite and mass deporting the survivors. For Edorix, usually described as a “joyful and emotional man”, was certainly not complacent or weak-willed.
Portrait of Edorix in the Greco-Roman style probably realized during his lifetime.
He pursued his father’s long running strategy, securing the tip of Armorica by sponsoring pro-Arverni leaders among the Osismii and turning them into a local power. He maintained pressure on the Treveri by associating closely with the Eburones and Marcomanni. Threats from the Germanic tribes were still present: despite the settlement of the Marcomanni and associated people, there were always would-be raiders from beyond the Hycernian forests crossing the border into Sequania. Edorix subsidized the Sequani leaders to erect fortified strongholds for permanent posting of Braers units and spent a lot of money extending the paved road toward Vesontio. Edorix maintained good relationship with Rome, although his forays in northern Hispania, a territory the Romans were eyeing for its rich silver deposits, and his support to the Cantabri people, were considered interferences.
The Arverni have been maintaining contacts in Cantabria since the 20s BCE. There, they mediated a peace between the Cantabri confederation and their southern neighbours the Vaccaei and the Turmodigi. The Vaccaei were allied to Rome, and the Cantabri, with their constant raids, threatened to set the region ablaze. The Romans’ control over central Hispania had been badly shaken during the civil war, emboldening those mountaineer tribes, but Agrippa’s good management had re-strengthened Roman presence at the turn of the century. Rome would soon be looking for a reason to invade and seize the silver mines. To insure the survival of a buffer state should the Cantabri cause their own demise with one raid too many, Edorix reported his effort on the Autrigones and Varduli, whose territories sat at “one of the four gates of Gallia” and secured their cooperation. His envoys visited the Astures in the west, a Celtiberian people living in harsh highlands who also resorted to raiding for their survival and succeeded in interesting them in sea trade: wine and tin for gold and silver.
However, the High King’s private life didn’t follow a steady route. From his campaigning days beyond the Rhine, Edorix had kept a German captive, Leurta, who gave him an illegitimate son, Vercatos. He sent the kid into the foster care of his uncle Vercassivellaunos’ family but was still enamoured with the woman enough he refused to dismiss her despite Vercingetorix’ pressure. With the fulfilment of his promised marriage to Cotulia, a Pictone princess, he consented to separate but still gifted Leurta with a personal estate, albeit outside the Nemossos’ limits. Now that his father was dead, nothing prevented Edorix from bringing her back. He had enough political clouts to not alienate a pillar of the Empire like the Pictones, but his Devil-may-care attitude sometime had the best of him. It led once to tense negotiations on waterway tariffs in 5 CE and a hotly debated wine tax in 6 CE.
Wine was the new gold. At the turn of the first century, the Arverni empire experienced an agricultural revolution. First, the grapes culture took off, Gallic wine outsold Roman wine thanks to the superiority of Gallic wooden barrels over amphoras for conservation and transport. Second, the introduction of three-crops rotations and water powered mills, two Roman imports, boosted food production between 10 BCE and 15 CE. Coupled to continued internal peace, it led to an important population boom.
Remnant of a 1st century winery in the Liger valley (left) and a model of Roman type watermill (right)
Arrangements during the Conglennos facilitated population movements and resettlement within the Empire. The new territories of Armorica saw a sudden growth: Darioriton, the former capital of the Veneti, nearly doubled in size in ten years. New towns blossomed on the northern coast, fed by the northern oceanic trade, killing the last remnant of piracy in the area. And yet, one person believed more could be achieved: Carantia.
After the peace, the woman who once personally led an eighty thousand men strong force in a high-stakes fight against the Germans was relegated to administrative and religious duties, a mild acknowledgement or her skills. She was still, however, a charismatic figure with consequent wealth and influence at her fingertip. In 3 CE she received and embassy of the Darini people of Hibernia. Encircled by enemies in their homeland, they had undertaken a perilous journey to ask the High King to lend the help of his mighty warriors, and Carantia saw an opportunity. Hibernia was then considered the modest corner of the Celtic world. A sparsely populated frontier, dotted with hilltop forts, who saw a new wave of migrants every century. Carantia, “who longed for command”, sponsored the ply of the Darini, at the condition they repaid in land for the Arverni to colonize.
They went to the Darini, who were grieving, for their lands were fertile and their people fair, but also surrounded by many enemies and usurpers, who killed their sons and daughters, and would not leave the Darini at peace. So Carantia told them that should they made her Queen, she would kill all their enemies’ sons and daughters, and bring all their kin under one banner. – The Cycle of Érainn
She would gather funds and ships for the expedition and enlisted two men for the task of raising an army: Ducarios, her own son from her second marriage, and Vercatos. Vercatos was then an adult man looking for his place within the elite, but his lopsided lineage made it hard for him to climb the ladder, while Cotulia’s own children were on the fast track for leadership. He gladly accepted his aunt’s offer, and their association would have consequences down the line.
There was no shortage of candidates to migration: a lot of people in Eastern Gaul were displaced by the recent invasions, and the end of the Roman Civil War put a lot of veteran back into civilian life looking to resettle. To this group joined Germans drifters, and if stories are true, even Roman deserters. Edorix consented to loan 1500 braers.
In Spring 5 CE, Carantia boarded a ship in Burdigala, the first of 200 that would sail past the Armorican peninsula, toward Hibernia.